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A NOTE FROM FRED
As we head into the final days of the midterm elections, Americans are facing two fundamental threats to our democracy.
Threat One: Baseless attacks on our elections, led by former President Trump and his followers, are dangerously undermining the faith of tens of millions of Americans in the honesty and credibility of our elections.
Threat Two: An unprecedented tsunami of big money, led by billionaires and millionaires, is flooding the midterms with money that buys influence – and results – over elections and government decisions.
The Cult of Election Deniers
A new poll found, amazingly, that 65 percent of registered Republicans still believe Trump’s unrelenting Big Lie that President Biden’s election was illegitimate – despite the absence of a shred of evidence supporting their position.
“Heads I win, tails you lose,” is now, apparently, a key Republican election doctrine.
A byproduct of the false Trump claims is a cult-like following that has produced nearly 300 Republican election deniers running this year for congressional or state offices in 48 of the 50 states.
Election deniers who lose on November 8 may well follow Trump’s game plan and refuse to accept the election results despite their loss. Those who win and end up in positions involving oversight of elections may well try to rig elections in 2024 and beyond, proclaiming, without any evidence, that their party’s candidates won elections they lost.
Trump followers continue to spread disinformation and a new poll finds that two in five voters “say they are worried about threats of violence or voter intimidation at polling stations during the country’s midterm elections.”
In Arizona, for example, armed individuals in tactical gear have been monitoring ballot drop boxes and violent threats have been made against election workers.
The results of the midterms will tell us the extent of the vital work that lies ahead to protect the integrity of the 2024 presidential election and other races.
The Big Money Tsunami
Billionaires and millionaires are pouring big money into congressional races like they’re playing in a political sandbox. And, big money buys influence and results.
Some billionaires appear to be emulating the era of the 19th-century robber barons, when some Senators were known by the powerful corporations that funded their elections rather than the states that elected them.
For example, Peter Thiel, with a reported net worth of more than $4 billion, gave $15 million to a Super PAC to elect Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance and another $15 million to a Super PAC to elect Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters. (Thiel reportedly is giving another $5 million to elect Masters, whose race with incumbent Senator Mark Kelly has tightened.)
Should candidates Vance and Masters be elected, they may well become known as “The Senators from Peter Thiel.”
In Pennsylvania, a staggering $170 million reportedly has been spent so far in the election cycle by outside groups on the Senate race to elect Republican Mehmet Oz or Democrat John Fetterman. Oz himself has provided more than $22 million of his own money for his campaign. In Georgia, more than $100 million has been spend so far by outside groups in the race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
The top 50 individual and organizational donors in this election cycle have given more than $1.1 billion to support congressional candidates, an average of more than $20 million per donor. These 50 donors, alone, provided at least $708 million to support Republicans and at least $437 million to support Democrats. And this doesn’t include the secret “dark money” contributions that donors may have made to outside spending groups.
The American people fully understand that big money from the wealthiest people and most powerful monied interests in the country buys influence over Washington decisions and turns more than 300 million Americans into second-class citizens.
Until we establish a system of public financing for presidential and congressional elections, the American people and our democracy will remain hostage to a corrupt political system in Washington.
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FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT
Election Day Is Nov. 8, But Legal Challenges Have Already Begun
The more than 100 lawsuits filed so far, mostly by Republicans, are the most ever before an election and likely a preview of a potentially contentious post-election landscape.
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TRUMPWATCH
Will He Testify? Trump’s Lawyers Accept Subpoena From Jan. 6 Committee, analysis via The Guardian.
Bob Woodward’s “Trump Tapes”: 20 Interviews That Show Why He Is An Unparalleled Danger, via The Washington Post.
Trump’s “Scorched Earth” Plans To Challenge The 2022 Elections, via Rolling Stone.
Justice Dept Seeks To Force Trump White House Lawyers To Testify In Jan. 6 Inquiry, via The New York Times.
Mar-a-Lago Docs: Justice Dept Seeks Testimony On Trump’s Claims To Have Declassified Documents
The DOJ effort “shows how the investigation is entering a new phase as prosecutors seek to push recalcitrant witnesses to cooperate with them,” via The New York Times.
Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Fundraising Boost Came With Big Costs
“The former President is spending significantly more than before on prospecting to expand his donor pool,” via Politico.
For Trump’s Backers in Congress, “Devil Terms” Help Rally Voters
“In vilifying tweets and speeches, GOP lawmakers who contested the election have far outpaced other Republicans and Democrats in fueling polarization,” via The New York Times.
Trump Lets The Truth Slip About MAGA Base — And Today’s GOP
“[I]t is unavoidably clear that many Republican elites have decided that adhering to or merely humoring Trump’s 2020 lies is essential to feeding that anger — and that they view these lies as a critical mobilizing tool in the midterm elections,” opinion via The Washington Post.
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🚨 WARNING OF THE WEEK 🚨
The Effort To Break America’s Elections
“As the midterm elections loom, we see increasing reports of an effort to overwhelm elections systems and break confidence in their reported results with an obvious desired outcome: Seizing power whatever those results say.”
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MIDTERMS, MONEY, & MORE
Meet The Mega-Donors Pumping Millions Into The Midterms, via The Washington Post.
Dark Money Groups Have Spent Nearly $1 Billion So Far To Boost GOP Senate Candidates, via National Public Radio.
It’s The Nation’s Most Expensive Senate Race. We Dig Into Where Fetterman’s And Oz’s Money Comes From, via The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Bloomberg Pumps $10M More Into Dem. House Campaigns, via Politico.
New Trump-Backed Super PAC Pours $8.6M In Ad Spending Into Key Races, via ABC News.
Following Supreme Court Decision, Self-Funding Candidates Are Using Campaign Funds To Pay Themselves Back, via Open Secrets.
How Mike Lindell’s Pillow Business Propels The Election Denial Movement, via The New York Times.
Conspiracy Pushers Target Races For Local Election Posts, via Associated Press.
State Legislatures Are Dramatically Increasing Law Enforcement Involvement In Elections
“The proliferation of election crime legislation represents the most intense voter suppression threat in decades and comes in direct response to false claims the 2020 election was stolen,” via Reveal.
What An Expert Foresees For Voter Intimidation This Election Cycle, via National Public Radio.
Arizona: Armed, Masked Vigilantes Are “Monitoring” Ballot Drop Boxes (Vice) … Georgia: Election Deniers In Charge Of County Election Offices Are Continuing To Sow Mistrust (CNN) … Colorado: Clerks Battle False Claims As They Prepare To Administer Elections (Colorado Public Radio)… Florida: New State “Election Police” Appear To Be Illegally Targeting Good Faith Voting Mistakes (Just Security).
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